The present invention relates to a novel protein composite material which is formed from a vegetable proteinaceous extract and which can be used with protein materials and products derived from animal sources. The product of the invention is designed to simulate a granulated (e.g. minced) protein product, notably, but not exclusively, a granular meat product and may be used to supplement the meat content of meat products, such as pie fillings and sausages.
The use of vegetable protein materials in and with meat products has a long (and mostly honourable) history but increasing interest has been shown in this question in the last couple of decades as the price of natural meat products has tended to rise at a rate faster than that of average incomes, thus resulting in natural meat products becoming relatively more expensive. Moreover, a reduction in the consumption of natural meat and other animal protein products is generally perceived as more "healthy" and the food processing industry is eager to meet this consumer demand.
Additionally, the incorporation of vegetable protein materials in meat products can lead to an improvement in taste, texture, appearance or other properties of the product.
Regrettably, there is a problem. On the one hand, vegetable protein materials tend to be less expensive than animal products but, on the other hand, in their natural state, they may be unpalatable (e.g. because of pronounced "beany" flavors), socially or personally unacceptable (for example, soya beans contain trisaccharides and tetrasaccharides, whose ingestion can often lead to flatulence), or may be perceived merely as "vegetables", fit only to be consumed by animals or vegetarians. In order to overcome these problems of consumer acceptability, one of the most common practices is to isolate the protein from the vegetable to produce a product containing a relatively high protein content, from which, desirably, the objectionable flavor and physiologically active compounds have been removed and, perhaps somewhat less desirably, the physical structure has also been destroyed. This product will normally be in the form of a powder having, provided it has been processed properly, a fairly neutral flavor and having a color which may vary from white to, in general, light beige. Such a product may be of the type referred to as a "vegetable protein concentrate" or "vegetable protein isolate". This product then has to be processed in some way to give it a flavor and texture acceptable to the consumer. For example, where it is to be used as a meat extender or replacement, it may be necessary to impart a generally "fibrous" texture to the product.
Parenthetically, it should here be noted that the use of terms such as "fibrous" does not, in this technology, imply the presence or absence of fibers as such, but merely refers to the perceived texture, either visual or, and much more important, that texture perceived upon consumption and commonly described by the expression "mouthfeel".
Many processes have been developed for imparting texture ("texturising") vegetable protein materials, including a variety of spinning processes and several extrusion-expansion processes. These often produce excellent products, but can be expensive or may produce products which, whilst having the requisite texture are too obviously "meat replacements" to be acceptable in certain types of products.
We have now discovered how to produce a vegetable protein product (which may be used in association with animal protein products), which possesses a distinctly granular appearance, and which is thus capable of simulating a minced animal protein product.